Chicago PD star Marina Squerciati has revealed how fans can expect more of the friendship between Hailey Upton and Kim Burgess in season nine.
Both characters have seen their arc deal with their romantic relationships and professional lives, but Marina has now teased that the focus on female friendships will be a new direction the show plans to take.
Speaking exclusively to HELLO! Marina shared how she tries not to interfere with the show's writers but that she did ask for "more of this female friendship" and it turned out "they were already going in this direction".
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"It will be exciting to see [Hailey and Kim] blossom and develop, I hope, a friendship," Marina added.
"The relationship between Upton and Burgess hasn't been explored, and I am excited to see, in little ways and big ways, how that brings us together and pulls us apart."
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However, their friendship may be tested as Upton is keeping a terrible secret - she murdered Roy, the suspect who kidnapped and tortured Kim.
Upton (right) is harboring a secret
At the end of season eight, fans saw Detective Hank Voight - the head of their unit - throw everything they had learned about police reform out of the window when he decided to go after Roy, a suspected child trafficker and a man who had also murdered Deputy Superintendent Samantha Miller's son.
As Upton tried to stop Voight, Roy reached for Voight's gun and Upton shot him dead. But did Voight set the whole thing up so that Upton would have to kill Roy?
Voight told Upton to keep quiet, and promised to burn and bury Roy's body.
Kim is battling PTSD
But as the search continues for Roy - and Kim battles PTSD from her attack - how long will it be before Upton breaks?
"[Kim is] really affected in the beginning. Whatever she is suffering though, she's put a mask on in front of her kid, which is something we all do," Marina told HELLO!
"But she is fighting a darker side of herself and that's winning."
One Chicago returns to screens on Wednesday 22 September at 8/7c on NBC
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